A very merry belated Thanksgiving to all of you! 

Two choral works by yours truly will be performed in December, including the world premiere of my very first choral Christmas work, 'O Child'!

If you're in the Bay Area or NYC, I hope you'll come hear these excellent concerts.
(Click on dates for venue and ticket information.)

December 7 (Manhattan) and December 9 (Brooklyn)
Dessoff Choirs perform 'To Soar in Freedom and in Fullness of Power'
Admission $20-40

If you missed the world premiere back in June, here's another chance to take flight with my setting of Walt Whitman's inspiring poem, scored for women's chorus—part of Dessoff's Welcome Yule program. Why is this piece, which has nothing to do with Christmas, on a Yule program? It's because Dessoff is spending this entire season celebrating Whitman's 200th birthday. Joyous Yuletide, Walt! 

December 8 (Berkeley) and December 15 (San Francisco)
International Orange Chorale premieres 'O Child'
(Free admission, donations gratefully accepted)

My first Christmas-themed choral piece, 'O Child' also marks the first time I've penned my own choral text. It's written from the perspective of Joseph and Mary, imagining what they might have been thinking and feeling when they first beheld the newborn baby Jesus. It is very much inspired by my own experience as a father of two. My goal was to write something like all my favorite Christmas music: simple and beautiful. 

'O Child' was chosen from an open call for scores for International Orange's Freshly Squeezed program, so you will hear a number of really interesting, brand-new works at this concert. I've been to several IOC concerts and they are consistently excellent—in fact, I've been bugging them to sing my stuff for quite a while now, so I'm truly delighted to be on their program. 

I'll be attending the Berkeley concert on December 8—I hope to see you there! 

I've been quiet these past several months, and that's because I've been happily elbow-deep in my commission for the Oakland Symphony Chorus, now with an official title: Mass for Freedom. 

Please mark your calendar for the premiere: Saturday, April 13, 2019! 
We now have a venue: the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. 
(I do not yet have ticket information; as soon as I find out, you'll be the first to know.) 

As I type, the piano/vocal score is complete and on its way from the copyist (piano/vocal means the vocal parts are entirely finished, with a piano accompaniment for rehearsal only), and I have recently broken ground on the fully orchestrated version of the final movement.